The EC Archives: Impact

RATING:
The EC Archives: Impact
Alternative editions:
Impact graphic novel review
SAMPLE IMAGE 
Alternative editions:
SAMPLE IMAGE 
  • North American Publisher / ISBN: Dark Horse - 978-1-50671-192-8
  • Release date: 2020
  • UPC: 9781506711928
  • Contains adult content?: no
  • Does this pass the Bechdel test?: no
  • Positive minority portrayal?: no

Impact was a series launched when EC were forced to revise their entire line in 1954, and described as prioritising the shock ending, which had been a staple of the company’s defunct horror, SF and war titles. It continued the intent pioneered in Shock SuspenStories, and while war material still featured, although minimally, the abiding theme was of ordinary people of the 1950s finding themselves in circumstances beyond their control. Theodore Hamilton loses his job after thirty years and several hours later a series of events have prompted suicide; Dr. Brown needs to be in two places at once in his rural area during a snowstorm; Joe Wiler takes the fall for his wayward son’s theft…

Stories of forbidden love, almost a lifetime’s debt and tragic illness feature, and those emphasising human states such as compassion, honesty and pride, but the writers of most content remains unknown. The shocks range from Carl Wessler ending a story about divorcing parents so tritely it was surely even hackneyed in 1955, to many still powerfully surprising. Wessler underling the dedication of the country doctor is a real hammer blow, and most of these human dramas still surprise.

Some are great, some are very good, and a handful just ordinary, but the art elevates them all. In any other publication the illustrative polish of George Evans (sample art left) would be the star turn, but Evans shares the pages with Reed Crandall, Jack Davis (sample art right) and the consistently experimental Bernard Krigstein.

Krigstein draws two stories, an unremarkable tale of resentment prompting success, and the most famous of all EC stories. Written by Al Feldstein, ‘Master Race’ concerns a German now in New York, having escaped capture after running a World War II extermination camp, yet unable to escape his own conscience, no longer able to suppress it. It’s an already powerfully scripted tale elevated to a masterpiece by Krigstein’s diligence and his willingness to fight for extra pages instead of compacting the work into the standard six.

Peculiarly, the Comics Code Authority, whose stamp was intended as a beacon of wholesome entertainment, refused the acknowledgement of a character in another EC title being Jewish, so a condemnation of appalling persecution doesn’t once use the term. Neither does ‘The Loser, where a soldier fighting in Korea is bullied by a bigot making numerous references to “your kind”, yet never being specific. It’s a powerful piece rather undermined by the put upon soldier being named Miller, hardly a name associated with Jewish heritage, but claimed to be so for the purposes of the story.

This colour edition is a faithful reproduction, but the art connoisseur might prefer the oversized 1988 hardcover from Russ Cochran collecting the entire series reproduced in black and white.

Loading...